Mr Wu Pang

1909-2000

Director

Born in Shanghai, director Wu Pang launched his film career after moving to Hong Kong in 1936. His first film, Farewell on a Winter Night (1938), was followed by The Tolling Bell (1940), which was scripted by the great Cantonese opera playwright Tong Tik Sang, and The Sentimental Swallow Returns (1941) starring the beloved Cantonese opera singer Siu Ming Sing. Wu also directed Fishing Village in the War (1948) and A Woman’s Heart (1948), both scripted by Chun Kim, and Parting Unto Sky’s End (1951), a portrait of the life of Siu Ming Sing. In a career spanning four decades, Wu helmed 200 titles. Of these, 58 belong to the “Wong Fei Hung” series, including the first one, The Whip That Smacks the Candle (1949). Wu also shot the comedy Everyone Loves Grandpa (1955) and Cantonese opera film The Festive Lantern (1960). Notably, he made the two-part Story of the Vulture Conqueror (1958 & 1959), the first screen adaptation of Louis Cha’s classic martial arts novel. In 1993, Wu published memoir Wong Fei Hung and I, in which he recounts the shooting of the “Wong Fei Hung” series and other movies. The Hong Kong Film Critics Association presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.